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CHAPTER VIII
REIGN OF ELIZABETH
Once again, on the accession of Elizabeth, was there a general outburst of relief and joy throughout England. Similar demonstrations, no doubt, had occurred when Mary began to reign; but the present rejoicings were more general and heartfelt, and far more long-continued. The relief felt at the relaxation of the Protestant tyranny of Edward's Council was slight compared to that experienced at the cessation of Mary's massacres; and the outcries of the Protestants, in the one case, formed a more audible note of discord than did the murmurings of the Popish clergy on the other, so true was the statement of Bishop Bonner's famous lady correspondent, that 'the very Papists themselves begin now to abhor your bloodthirstiness, and speak shame of your tyranny.'
In this reign, also, we shall find religious matters occupying an important—and, as it would appear to modern eyes, a disproportionately important—place; but they do not form the one completely dominant consideration which they did in the last two reigns, and especially in the last. Indeed, it was impossible that they should do so. The perils by which England was surrounded, both at home and abroad, were too pressing, too varied, and too immediate, to permit a new sovereign to rule, as Mary had done, on purely fanatical
